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Starting Friday September 1st, the new tariffs for fixed telephone and internet communications provided by Ogero will come into effect, in accordance with a decision made by the Council of Ministers following a proposal presented by caretaker Minister of Telecommunications Johnny Corm. According to this decision, the rates for services provided by Ogero will be multiplied by seven. As such, the internet access package will range between 420,000 Lebanese pounds and 7 million Lebanese pounds, while the tariff for fixed telephone communications has been set at 200,000 Lebanese pounds for a package of one thousand minutes.
Ogero’s prices will continue to be displayed in Lebanese pounds, Corm assures This Is Beirut. He believes that “these new tariffs will be able to cover Ogero’s expenses without burdening the consumer.” He noted that “despite the price increase, they remain lower than those adopted in 2018.”
For Corm, however, the problem with pricing lies at the level of private internet distribution companies and neighborhood distributors. “They are not allowed to increase the service price by more than 15 dollars, whereas the Ministry only increased the price of E1 for the Internet by 4 dollars,” he insists. It should be noted that the E1 interface is a standard for digital telecommunications that uses time-division multiplexing to carry voice, video and data. Corm believes that “there is no justification for the recent increase that these distributors have imposed on citizens, especially since they had already increased the rates before the price of E1 was revised upward.” He explains that the E1 package is sufficient for five people. Thus, these companies generate huge profits by selling Internet in dollars, even though they buy it from the public provider Ogero in Lebanese pounds.
A three-step plan
Corm explains that the Ministry has implemented a three-step plan to address this issue. “The first is short-term. The Ministry of Economy will be responsible for monitoring the prices that distributors impose on citizens,” he says. “It will have the right to issue fines and arrest violators.”
The second step will be medium-term. During this phase, the teams of the Ministry of Telecommunications will “suspend the activities of illegal internet distributors in areas where the connection affiliated with the public provider works. Ogero has agreed to this.”
As part of the third step, which will be long-term, the Ministry of Telecommunications will work to “compile an inventory of the number of subscribers for each distributor. We have also asked them to provide us with their (network) maps so that the Ministry can find a way to connect the existing unorganized network to the Ministry’s network,” Corm notes. “We have started working with six companies. We aim to foster competitiveness and prevent monopolies.” He emphasized that a list of areas where Ogero’s services will be available will be announced soon to allow people to connect with the public provider.
